So about two years ago, I started getting a battery drain overnight. I traced that to the driver's side mouse belt (i.e., automatic seat belts for the uninitiated). One of the limit switches was bad; when the door is open, the car thinks it hasn't pushed the belt forward enough, and cycles the track motor over and over again in an effort to put the shoulder belt in full "open" position. The battery will take about 4 hours of this before it surrenders.

I was forced, therefore, to disconnect the battery negative cable every time I left the vehicle. The family joke was this was our "redneck anti-theft device".

Anyway, I got in the car about six months ago, turned the key, and the seat belt stayed in the open position, meaning I had no shoulder belt protection, as it was away from my body. I acquired a set of the emergency anchor clips, installed the one for the driver's side (the passenger's belt has never malfunctioned) and have been driving the car ever since. A welcome side effect also occurred -- the car stopped trying to cycle the belt motor, so I'd been able to leave my battery connected.

Until today.

On the way back from a long trip, my shoulder belt anchor suddenly sprung to life and moved to the door-closed position. "Great," I thought, " I won't have to manually undo the belt or lift it over my head to get out of the car anymore."

The feeling of elation was short-lived, however, because the belt-motor cycling also returned. Meaning, the car is in the garage right now with the battery disconnected. It's not a huge annoyance, except I look silly connecting/disconnecting it in the rain, and it resets my clock to 0:00 every time I do it.

I've set out to fix this problem for good, and here's what I've done so far:

1) I found there is no forward limit switch. I had a 1987 Mitsubishi Starion with this same belt setup at one time, and there were limit switches on both ends of the seat belt track. There is no switch on the forward end of either track in this car. I'm assuming that's how this system is supposed to be.

2) Disconnecting the rear limit switch from the track, and/or manually depressing the plunger, has no effect. I would expect this, as it appears that particular switch only activates when the belt is in the rear (closed) position.

So now I'm either (a) missing a limit switch to test, (b) the problem is in the seat belt motor itself, or (c) the problem is in a door switch somewhere. I have only been able to find one door switch, that being the one inside the door jamb below the A-pillar. It operates the interior lights properly.

I would really, really, REALLY like to avoid taking the interior panels out of the rear of this car to fix this problem. I don't want to deactivate the whole system by unplugging components or fuses, either; I just want to be able to cut that rogue limit switch off when I get out of the car.

I realize this system should be under warranty (passive restraints have lifetime warranties by law), but when Burke Jaguar in Birmingham, Ala., had the Jaguar flag, they basically refused to fix the issue claiming a lack of available parts (which by law is not an excuse). The Tom Williams automotive group now has the Jaguar franchise in Birmingham and I have yet to try to deal with them. Either way, that's 3 hours from me and a total PITA to get a car to them with my work schedule.

If I've said anything here that triggers a suggestion from you guys, I'm all ears.

Jess